Tuesday, April 6, 2021 at 11:54 PM• Dominic Mostert

Real Madrid took a first step towards the semi-final of the Champions League on Tuesday evening. In Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano, Zinedine Zidane’s team was too strong for Liverpool, thanks to a double hit by Vinícius Júnior and a hit by Marco Asensio, 3-1, which will therefore face a tough task next Wednesday. Vinícius (20 years, 268 days) became the youngest Real player ever to score in the knockout stages of the Champions League after Raúl González (18 years, 253 days in March 1996 against Juventus).

Real remains a tough opponent for Liverpool. Together with Benfica, Real was the club that most often won against Liverpool in a European context: four times. Those four defeats all took place in the last four meetings between both clubs. Real stranded in the eighth final of the Champions League in the past two seasons, successively against Ajax and Manchester City, but is now on the threshold of the semi-final.